Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

them and making off with the prisoners. But the keys had slipped out now that the man’s flesh was dried up and crumbling away like ash on the wind.

Ben removed the keys from the belt, returned to the hut, and handed the keys to Melody. As he stood back and watched, she undid the null locks, keys in one hand, wand in the other.

He had his Drain spell ready. After the fight and then taking away the fear of these women, there was only the slightest trickle of mana left, but he didn’t think he would need much in this situation. These women said they were slaves, and he trusted them, but he also knew they had been through a hell of a lot. He wasn’t about to take the chance that one of them, particularly the blue haired woman, might not just unleash a bit of that pent up rage once the lock was off. He watched them carefully.

Melody obviously shared his suspicions. She released the other two women first. As she unlocked the null lock on Lulu, the blue haired woman’s ankle, Lulu raised her hands in an offensive gesture.

Ben didn’t hesitate an instant. He held out his open palm and swiftly targeted her emotional strands. With the ease that was coming with practice, he targeted her anger and sapped it to about half strength. The anger filled Ben.

The sensation of anger was a white-hot, burning rage, like every molecule of his body had been set aflame. His muscles tensed, his eyes narrowed, and his hands formed into fists so tight they seemed to him like solid stones—stones that could be used to kill.

The anger was so intense that he nearly lost control, nearly let himself get carried away by it. But Ben managed to stop it at the last moment, to stand outside the anger and recognize it as the invading feeling that it was.

He closed his eyes and focused, putting every bit of his energy into quelling the anger, turning it from a raging boil to a controllable simmer. And when it had died down, Ben recognized something to it, a shade of the anger. It was a feeling of protectiveness, like the anger was there to defend, not just to destroy.

Ben pushed the remaining rage aside until it was nearly gone. And when it was, he took one slow, deep breath after another until he was calm.

Lulu slumped to the ground. The other two women gasped. Green mist floated around the green haired woman’s hands. The white-haired woman, Imogen, stood in what appeared to be a martial arts pose, fists ready to lash out.

“What did you do to her?” demanded the green haired woman in the middle.

“Nobody move,” Melody commanded, holding her wand out and facing the other two women. Lightning sizzled on the end of her wand, casting bright blue flashes in the darkness.

The lurid light display illuminated the faces of the women, all eying each other warily.

“This one carries an enchanted weapon,” the green-skinned woman said to the one with the bleached white hair.

“Please, everyone, relax,” Ben said, in the calmest tone he could muster.

He had zero mana now that he’d stripped the blue-skinned woman of her anger. Not to mention that he had now taken on that anger, so he could feel that emotion broiling beneath his skin, desperate to be unleashed. Facing imminent death was getting a bit tiring, if Ben were being honest with himself.

“All I did to Lulu was sap her anger,” Ben explained. “I had to be sure she would play it cool. I just helped to ensure that she did just that.”

Lulu sat up. “I’m fine,” she said. She rubbed her head. Ben hadn’t ever been on the receiving end of Drain himself, but he suspected it could feel a bit unpleasant. She got to her feet though, and appeared to be about as steady as could be expected. He didn’t know how long they’d been slaves for, but that had to be exhausting.

When the other women saw that Lulu was unharmed, they lowered their fists. The magic surrounded the green-haired woman’s fists dissipated into the air like dust motes.

Melody relaxed her magic and brought down her wand. “Where did you get the mana to do all that?” she whispered to Ben.

“Beats me,” he whispered back. “I seem to have more than I expected.”

The green haired woman in the middle, whom he assumed was the leader of their small group, took a deep breath and faced Melody and him. “Thank you, whoever you are. You have rescued us, and we are grateful. I hope you can forgive us for being a bit wary, after seeing what you did to the ogres out there.”

“Of course, I can understand.” Ben relaxed his own posture. “You have obviously all been through a lot. Why don’t we introduce ourselves?”

The women nodded, and they all appeared to relax a bit more.

“I’m Benjamin,” he said. “And this is Melody.” He gestured at the catgirl beside him.

The women stared at the pair. They seemed to be waiting for something.

“And your names are?” Ben asked.

“Is that it?” the green haired woman asked.

“Well, those are our names,” he said. How did introductions work in this world?

Melody jumped in and saved him from embarrassment. “This is Benjamin of Davies, an, uh, an aspiring sorcerer. And I am Melody, a catgirl and Elemental Acolyte of the Arcanarium. We were on a mission in these woods when we saw your plight. We felt that rescuing you and putting an end to some of these ogres was a worthy detour.”

Right, Ben noted, so that was how you made an introduction. Ben noticed Melody didn’t introduce him as the reincarnation of the Forgotten Ruler. Probably for the best. It didn’t seem like a good idea to him to spill the beans about his identity to every stranger they met.

Melody had mentioned the Grand Vizier’s Realm. Ben felt sure this civilization wouldn’t take too kindly to his return, and he didn’t know